The invention disclosed and claimed herein is related generally to improvements in cleaning debris from the eave troughs of a building. More particularly, this invention is directed toward an apparatus which can be used in conjunction with a vacuum system for cleaning the eave troughs of a home or other building while standing at ground level.
The eave troughs of a building commonly accumulate large amounts of debris from the surrounding trees, etc. When this accumulation becomes excessive, the eave troughs become clogged and will no longer properly drain the rainwater from the roof of the building. Consequently, it is desirous to clean the eave troughs occasionally to prevent such clogging from occurring.
The most typical method of cleaning the eave troughs of a building is for a person to climb upon the roof itself, or upon a ladder, and manually pick the debris out of the trough. The mere fact that the person must climb to an elevated position, to engage in such manual cleaning, creates an inherently dangerous condition. In view of such danger, cleaning systems have been developed which facilitate the cleaning of such eave troughs from ground level.
Most conventional devices which faciliate such cleaning from ground level operate on a basis of blowing or blasting the debris out of the eave troughs with a jet stream of air or water. Although such systems have been relatively effective, the debris which is blown from an eave trough either falls to the ground and must subsequently be cleaned up, or is blown back on top of the roof where a subsequent rainfall will cause such debris to once again accumulate in the eave trough. Another problem associated with such conventional devices is that it is very difficult to see the results of the cleaning operation from ground level. The person cleaning an eave trough from ground level cannot see whether all of the debris in the eave trough has been dislodged and removed therefrom.
It is evident, therefore, that there is a distinct need for an apparatus which can be used for cleaning the eave troughs of a building from ground level which does not require subsequent cleaning cf the yard therebelow, or the roof thereabove. It is also evident that it would be advantageous to provide a means by which the person cleaning the eave trough could readily view that portion of the trough which has just been cleaned to ensure that no unwanted debris is left behind. Each of these objects described above are provided with my new eave trough cleaning apparatus, as described hereinbelow.